In the 19th century, Coney Island revolutionized American popular culture with a new brand of leisure and entertainment for the masses, culminating in the beginnings of the modern amusement park.  But the island also made another, more offbeat cultural contribution: the freak show.

From the mid to late 1800s, circus sideshows featuring human “curiosities” became a widely popular form of entertainment, starting in Coney Island and soon sweeping the nation.  The shows involved the exhibition of people with deformities or unusual physical characteristics, like extraordinary height or heavy tattoos, and often incorporated “shocking” acts, like fire-eating.  Advances in medicine caused audiences’ shock and disgusted to give way to sympathy for “freaks,” and the 20th century saw the decline of the freak show. But America’s guilty pastime is alive and well at Coney Island, where the park now hosts a modern, more lighthearted rendition of its signature amusement.

Following a traditional “ten-in-one” circus sideshow format, Sideshows by the Seashore features ten highly unique individuals (”freaks” no longer, the show now calls them “cast members”) performing classic acts like sword swallowing and snake charming.  The show’s recent roster includes the Lizard Man, Jackie the Human Tripod, and Heather Holliday, the world’s youngest female sword-swallower.

And for those who always dreamed of running away with the circus, the organization even has a “sideshow school,” where aspiring “freaks” can learn the art of sideshow performance.

While it’s no longer socially acceptable to laugh or gawk at people with deformities, Americans may always have a fascination with the strange and unusual– and Coney Island is still the place to go for a fix.

CAST Photos by Laure Leber